Marriage - the word that shall not be mentioned.

The Law Commission has been going on about granting rights to cohabiting couples, that already exist for married couples.

That is rights to property and who should have access to any remedies providing periodical payments, lump sums, or transfers of property from one party to the other when they separate.

In theory thats all well and good, of course if people are against marriage/civil ceremony they should really hash out at the start some sort of arrangement and so avoid problems further down the line.

Now I see a legal minefield ahead on this one, where one partner argues that they had been together for a long time and the other denies those claims.

Of course the whole problem could be avoided by them signing a contract known as a marriage, or civil ceremony if that's your thing. The law currently gives surviving spouses an automatic inheritance in such circumstances.

Mind its always the way that when the state attempts to micromanage the lives and resolve all the problems that face its citizens, it ends up creating more problems than it solves.

I can see lots of lawyers and other legal types eagerly looking forward to the first cases...

For more details there website is here

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